Nicolas Raskin will miss Rangers‘ game with Dundee on January 9 after going into the book for his confrontation with Callum McGregor.
The Belgian captained Gers in the New Year derby with Celtic with usual skipper James Tavernier benched with injury and vice captain Jack Butland missing out due to an internal bleed in his leg. And his first 45 minutes with the armband went well, Ianis Hagi’s superb low strike giving Rangers the lead at the half-time interval.
As usual with this one, tempers were never far from flaring and they boiled over after whistler Don Robertson blew for half-time. Raskin was seen getting into it with his counterpart McGregor and TV cameras showed the two grabbing each other by the shirt. Whistler Robertson settled things down and flashed a yellow card at Raskin – the fifth time this season he’s been booked.
It means he will now miss their trip to Dundee next Thursday, however he’ll still be available to face Hibs on Sunday with accumulative suspensions no longer coming into immediate effect.
McGregor was already on a booking when the two players clashed, something pundit Leanne Crichton highlighted on commentary as a possible reason Robertson elected not to book him too. She said on BBC Sportsound: “Callum McGregor is on a yellow card. So to allow himself to become embroiled in that – normally the referee would just flash a yellow card at both players and nip it in the bud. Obviously he has had to make the decision that it was more Raskin.”